1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for adjusting the suspended form of a chain of linked sausages suspended from a stick in loop form and an apparatus for conveying suspended sausage loops.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chain of linked sausages has a form in which individual sausages are connected by linked portions constituted by twisted portions. The chains of linked sausages suspended from sticks in order to be heat treated are brought into a heat treatment room and are subjected to heat treatment. Subsequently, the chains of linked sausages are removed from the sticks, and are then cut at the linked portions or casings are peeled off the sausages, thereby producing individually separated sausages. The chain of sausages is required to be suspended from the stick in a state in which its linked portions are in close proximity to or in contact with the stick until the chain of sausages is removed from the stick.
In attempts to enhance productivity in sausage manufacturing, the production system adopted is such that, by using a longer casing, this casing is formed into a greater number of sausage loops and is suspended from a longer stick, and the sausage loops suspended from the stick, while being automatically conveyed, are subjected to heat treatment in a continuous smokehouse. As the aforementioned longer stick used in this production system, a stick with a larger size is desired in order to reduce the deformation of the stick occurring during the handling of the stick and the deflection of the stick due to the weight of the sausage loops. In addition, depending on the structure of the continuous smokehouse, it is required to suspend from the sticks sausage loops with a shorter suspension length than heretofore.
Since the chain of linked sausages is suspended from the stick in a state of being bent at the linked portion, upper end portions of adjacent sausages positioned in close proximity to each other on both sides of this linked portion and suspended on both sides of the stick are brought into closer proximity to or into contact with each other. In the case where a thick stick is used, the two upper end portions (semispherical upper end portions) of the two adjacent sausages suspended from the stick are difficult to be deformed by the stick, and the linked portion is difficult to be brought into close proximity to the stick. This difficulty in being brought into close proximity to the stick increases in the case of a sausage loop whose suspension length is short and whose weight is light and in the case of sausage which is difficult to be deformed due to a stiffly stuffed cellulose casing.
As a result, the sausage loop is suspended from the stick in a state in which cylindrical body portions of left and right sausages have ridden on the stick without being suspended from the stick at the linked portion. If such sausages suspended from the stick in the thus-suspended state are subjected to heat treatment in the continuous smokehouse, an indentation and unevenness in smoking due to the stick occur in the cylindrical body portions of the sausages in contact with the stick, thereby causing the appearance quality of the sausages to decline.